Posts Tagged: "Internet"

Netflix raised a lot of ire in recent weeks when it negotiated a sponsored data agreement with two Australian ISPs. Those sponsored data agreements, which ensure that a certain amount of bandwidth is devoted to Netflix customers, was accused of running afoul of the very precepts of net neutrality for which the company lobbied here at home. From an innovation standpoint, if Netflix isn’t forced to pay for the bandwidth that it takes up, Netflix has no incentive to innovate a solution to the bandwidth problem that it has created for itself.

The EFF wants an exemption for people who want to modify their purchased games in order to bypass access controls when a publisher shuts down the server. Specifically, the EFF would like for any piece of software with server-based functions that are shut down by a publisher or developer to be considered “abandoned” six months later. This means that someone who owns a copy of a game that no longer has an online play component would be able to modify the game to eliminate authentication checks or access controls in the game itself so they can still play online using a third party server. This may also include reverse engineering and making intermediate copies of the game, which goes well beyond the skill set of the casual user.

Google’s self-driving car development has advanced so far beyond what our country’s laws are currently able to regulate that the technology has hit some legal stumbling blocks. As a result, Google has been focusing recently Google First Quarter 2015 Text Clusteron inventing pedestrian safety systems to be incorporated with its self-driving car, even receiving a patent for an airbag that would protect pedestrians in a collision. The company even has its focus on surgical robotics, recently announcing a partnership with Johnson & Johnson to develop surgical robots that would assist human surgeons.

Consumers are very interested in knowing that their data is protected, and not simply their financial account data. However, as wearable technologies and the closely related Internet of Things continue to become more robust, there have been questions raised over the privacy of data created and transmitted by these devices as well as the capability of others to gain unauthorized remote access through a cyber attack. Technologies designed to provide fitness tracking could have the unintended consequence of giving a party gaining unauthorized access to that data the ability to track their movement.

On-demand video services like Netflix and Hulu were niche businesses just a few years ago but in recent months it’s become clear that these platforms for streaming movies and television shows are a big part of the coming future of media entertainment. A recent Nielsen report indicated that 41 percent of American households have access to at least one subscription-based video on-demand (VOD) service. One out of every three homes in America has Netflix and one out of every ten has access to at least two video on-demand services.

Publicly traded shares of stock in the company will initially be priced in a range from $17 to $19 each. If each of the 22 million shares which the company plans on offering are sold at the high end of that range, it could net the company $418 million. This will be aided by a small but meaningful patent portfolio made up of nearly 150 U.S. patents, which cover core innovations relating to domain name valuation, domain name hijacking prevention and methods for creating an Internet business.

Unfortunately, the high cost of pharmaceutical medications is why about 50 million adults between the ages of 19 and 64 do not fill out a prescription every year. Medications purchased over the Internet can cost up to 90 percent less than the same medication purchased in a brick-and-mortar pharmacy. It is also easy to understand those cost savings given the ingredients found in online pharmaceuticals. Consumers obviously need better protections to make sure that the medication they’re purchasing is the medication are ordering and not drywall or rat poison.

The speedy evolution of what defines IoT is why the phrase is frequently called a concept, although it is best to say that the IoT describes the not too distant future where ordinary, everyday objects are connected to the Internet. That means that those objects, which can range from wearable devices to washing machines to lamps and coffee makers, will not only be able to relate to the user, but will be able to relate to one another and act in unison. It is against this backdrop that ICAP Patent Brokerage is going to be holding an Internet of Things auction on April 23, 2015. This auction will sell patent portfolios relating to wearables, smart-home technology, medical records and medical data collection, shipping and retail logistics/data, Big Data (including distributed storage architecture), sensors (MEMS and motion sensors), and the standards that drive the connectivity between them (802.11, NFC, Bluetooth, RFID, Zigbee, and PLC).

The Federal Trade Commission is hoping to take a lead role in shaping best practices for privacy and security in the growing Internet of Things. Near the end of January, the FTC issued a staff report entitled Internet of Things: Privacy & Security in a Connected World. In it, the agency spells out a need for companies designing IoT products to establish appropriate data privacy and cybersecurity practices and tools to protect consumers.

This radical new policy would sharply and artificially reduce the level of protection given to Wi-Fi-related patents. If approved, the change would immediately depress the future development of a technology that is used every day by billions of people worldwide precisely because of the historically competitive, balanced standardization process.